Love This Season

I have to admit, when I first walked into the Kohl's to do some pre Christmas shopping with my Mom I was annoyed that they had so much Christmas stuff up and Thanksgiving was still weeks ahead.  I like to explore one holiday at a time.  The Christmas music was playing and you could see some individuals with that look on their face.  The look of a real bargain.  Boredom even.  Like drones lined up for a deal.  As I walked along with my Mother looking at belts and ties and towels and aprons a Christmas song playing in the background I found myself automatically humming.  The more I hummed the more I smiled.  Then I saw the really cool center pieces for the Christmas Dinner table and felt myself light up with the Christmas Spirit.  Sparkling pretty decorations.  The anticipation of watching my kids open Grandma's presents on Christmas.  More Christmas music in the background lifting me higher.  By the time we got to the lines, drone faces I tell ya, I noticed a little boy crying in his Mother's arms about 2 years old.  Mom was trying hard to console and get him to stop but he refused.  That is until he saw my smile.

  I spent a good ten minutes with this little boy, he was in the line next to me and further on ahead.  We started making faces at each other and his smiles turned into giggles which of course made Mom turn around to see what was going on since he was much happier all of the sudden.  A woman behind me suddenly asked me about a purchase I was making, if I was turning all these items into a cool craft and could she get in on it but I bored her with a no just buying them as is but intrigued at her creative mind and started looking closer at my items.  I wish I could see what she was thinking.  Meanwhile as I was distracted this boy had began to cry again and be fussy and hearing him I drew my attention back to making faces and smiling at him again so his mother could complete her purchase.  It was almost as if we had an inside joke going and no one else could see this little world we had entered for a time.  Again, my heart started to glow.

Being the mother of two teens and pre schooler I feel as though I'm split into lots of little pieces going in different directions and it honestly wears me out.  Teenagers love their own lives but they also need a chef and taxi driver.  Not to mention an occasional tutor.  Meanwhile Miss Toddlerpants as we affectionately call her these days, is very demanding we have in fact hit the pre school diva phase.  It's not all bad sometimes very entertaining really but when I'm already tired from a poor health day and lots of 5am wake up calls there are, quite frankly some days where you just want to put them in a padded room filled with balloons for a couple of hours and read a book that's been sitting on your shelf since last Christmas and you're only goal was to read it before this Christmas.  Epic fail on that this year.  But when the Christmas lights go on, or Christmas music starts to play, their eyes light up especially miss diva's.  Her excitement is completely contagious and infectious.  You can't escape.

My favorite part of this season is, however, time.  I look forward to spending time with my family getting a little bit fatter, watching Christmas movies old and new, laughing together, playing board games together, eating cookies until we're on a major sugar high ( of course this year that won't be me).  Time is the most precious most valuable tool/gift that I have to give.  I do it as often as I possibly can whether it's accepted or not as long as it's offered.  I love the snuggles in front of a roaring fire all of us curled up.  The giggles and tickle fights.  The general silliness and smiles. 

In those moments, sometimes crazy funny and sometimes quiet and simple, I remember how thankful I am for my family.  How thankful I am for every smile, for every tear, for every trial and triumph that we have individually and collectively endured this past year.  I thank God in Heaven for the opportunity to be a Mother to these magnificent children.  Children that were always meant for me.  I think about Mary and how afraid she must have felt bringing the Savior of the world to life.  But how special, hopeful, peaceful and the joy she must have felt that night He was born to this world.  Knowing He was always meant to be hers.  How profound. How humbling.  

I am so incredibly thankful for this world.  It isn't perfect, as aren't we.  But it's ours.  It's ours to love and appreciate as well as everyone on it.  I am thankful for the Savior, Jesus Christ and His perfect example of love and generosity.  I am thankful to have the opportunity to get to know Him in this life through studying the scriptures and prayer.  I hope that we all in any circumstance can find a way to love each other, even in disagreement.  That we can learn to accept that everyone has free agency and the right to choose for themselves what to believe.  Merry Christmas, and God Bless.